[First written as the Sixteenth Note of the Seventeenth Flash, this part of the Risale-i Nur was later designated as the Twenty-Third Flash because of its importance. This treatise puts naturalistic atheism to death with no chance of reanimation, and totally shatters the foundation stones of unbelief.]

A Reminder

This treatise explains through Nine Impossibilities, themselves comprising at least ninety impossibilities, just how unreasonable, crude and superstitious is the reality of the way taken by those Naturalists who are atheists. Since these impossibilities have been explained in part in other sections of the Risale-i Nur, and to cut short the discussion here, some steps in the arguments have been skipped. It suddenly comes to mind, then, how is it that those famous and supposedly brilliant philosophers accepted such a blantantly obvious superstition, and continue to pursue that way. Well, the fact is they could not see its reality. And I am ready to explain in detail and prove through clear and decisive arguments to whoever doubts it that these crude, repugnant and unreasonable impossibilities are the necessary and unavoidable result of their way; in fact, the very gist of their creed.

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Their prophets said: “Is there any doubt about God, Creator of the heavens and the earth?”

By declaring through the use of a rhetorical question that there cannot and should not be any doubt about God Almighty, this verse clearly demonstrates the Divine existence and Unity.

A point to be mentioned before our discussion:

When I went to Ankara in 1922, the morale of the people of belief was extremely high as a result of the victory of the army of Islam over the Greeks. But I saw that an abominable current of atheism was treacherously trying to subvert, poison and destroy their minds. “O God!” I said, “this monster is going to harm the fundamentals of belief.” At that point, since the above-mentioned verse makes self-evidently plain God’s existence and Unity, I sought assistance from it and wrote a treatise in Arabic consisting of a proof taken from the All-Wise Qur’an that was powerful enough to disperse and destroy that atheistic current. I had it printed in Ankara at the Yeni Gün Press. But, alas, those who knew Arabic were few and those who considered it seriously were rare. Also, its argument was in an extremely concise and abbreviated form. As a result, the treatise did not have the effect it should have done and sadly, that current of atheism both swelled and gained strength. Now, I feel compelled to explain a part of the proof in Turkish. Since certain parts of it have been fully explained in other sections of the Risale-i Nur, it will be written in summary form here. Those numerous proofs in part unite in this proof; so each may be seen as an element of this proof.

Introduction

O man! You should be aware that there are certain phrases which are commonly used and imply unbelief. The believers also use them, but without realizing their implications. We shall explain three of the most important of them.

The First: “Causes create this.”

The Second: “It forms itself; it comes into existence and later ceases to exist.”

The Third: “It is natural; Nature necessitates and creates it.”

Indeed, since beings exist and this cannot be denied, and since each being comes into existence in a wise and artistic fashion, and since each is not outside time but is being continuously renewed, then, O falsifier of the truth, you are bound to say either that the causes in the world create beings, for example, this animal; that is to say, it comes into existence through the coming together of causes, or that it forms itself, or that its coming into existence is a requirement and necessary effect of Nature, or that it is created through the power of One All-Powerful and All-Glorious. Since reason can find no way apart from these four, if the first three are definitely proved to be impossible, invalid and absurd, the way of Divine Unity, which is the fourth way, will necessarily and self-evidently and without doubt or suspicion, be proved true.

One a’lim & wise man explained to me that for abnormal incident (inclusive of psychic/paranormal incidents) to occur, there are two possibilities for such things to occur – First the practitioner is a firm believer and strictly adhere to the syariah of Islam & such things were gifted by Allah to strengthen & proof his truth. Secondly it is possible that such person was misguided & tricked by the syaitan in order to lead him astray from the syariah. (It could be either waridat from Allah in the first instance, and in the second instance, waridat from syaitan)

The wise man further advised that in order to determine whether such special abilities were from syaitan or Allah, one must observe whether the practitioner can summon such abilities at will at any time he wishes. If he can summon it at any time he wishes, it is said its source is from syaitan, since waridat from Allah cannot be controlled and compelled by any human.

I sincerely believe the statement from the wise man to be true and accurate since he adheres strictly to syariah and never lacks himself from constant dzikrullah (remembrance of Allah). Another point worth sharing is that this wise man once tried to get another qualified practitioner to exercise hypnotism upon him, however such hypnotism attempt has no effect on that pious person, giving inference that people who are in constant dzikrullah would insyaAllah be protected by Allah.